Insta-Friday.

This week was a busy one. Good busy. Happy busy. Fun busy. The kind of fun busy that makes you think there shouldn't be any such thing as school or work. Anyway, in addition to seeing We Bought A Zoo one day and going out for Chinese food at our favorite Chinese restaurant, and enjoying Cosby Show marathons on Netflix every night, we.........

hung out with friends-- and did things like create masterpieces with Becky's leftover Halloween candy.  Yes, leftover Halloween candy-- I didn't know such a thing existed until Becky walked through our front door with a bag of it in tow.

played with all the new games/toys/gadgets that everyone got for Christmas.

donned our Kevlar's and went to Sea Life at the Mall of America.

had a cheap lunch at IKEA before tackling "the maze."

 

went for shakes at McDonalds a couple of times because it's never too cold for ice cream!

took advantage of the exceptionally warm and snow-free December and went to the zoo.  For the record, Meghan was the only one who was wearing a coat, and to this very moment, we don't know why--it was almost 50 degrees that day!

looked at Christmas lights-- this was a favorite not so much for the decorations, but because they had their lights synced to Christmas music over the radio. It was awesome.  I think we stood outside, without coats, for almost half an hour just watching and listening. So fun.

Then three hours after enjoying the synced Christmas lights, we looked out our window and saw this.  Nothing like bringing in the New Year with the first blizzard of the season!

( linking up here  )

A Couple More Christmas Ideas.....

Just because I don't have enough ideas to remember (or implement!) for next Christmas, here's a couple more!

 More Christmas book titles to be on the lookout for found here and here. 

While Pretzel Hugs are nothing new around here, I love how she put them in the little Christmas trees to give out as gifts. Very clever! I had never been to this blog before today......I have to say I love it.  I especially love that she has an Addison with a unique sense of style and blonde curly hair! :D

Some other ideas I think would be fun to remember are:

*The whole Elf On A Shelf thing. *Making Chocolate Chip Cookies on Christmas Eve to leave out for Santa. (found the idea here) *Putting together little boxes filled with activities such as printed off coloring pages and printed off dot to dots for the kids' advent box. I tend to run out of ideas (not to mention money!)half way through the month-- printing off a bunch of free activities and wrapping them up would be a fun thing to try. Not to mention quick and easy for those days when I forgot to plan on something for the box. * A Favorite Things Christmas Party. * And last, but certainly not least, a kids cookie decorating party.

Ahh, so much to remember and try out.......so little time!

Balloons To Heaven.

Sending balloons to heaven on Christmas Day. Priceless.

Merry Christmas!

A Last Minute Christmas.

After finally having a bit of down time to catch up on some blog reading, I came across a couple of really great Christmas ideas. The kind that are perfect to implement if you need presents or gift toppers at the last minute. Or if you're like me and already thinking of things to "file away" for next year. The first idea is this:

Clothespin Snowflakes from here.

Family Game Night Gift from here.